Researchers in Australia and the U.S. say they have created a highly elastic surgical glue that can quickly seal even the toughest wounds, without staples or stitches.
In a paper published this week in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers say their gel-like material has quickly and successfully sealed incisions in the arteries and lungs of rodents, and the lungs of pigs.
The new sealant, called MeTro, is said to be ideal for closing up difficult-to-seal wounds in tissues that repeatedly expand and relax, such as lungs, hearts and arteries.
The adhesive fills in wounds and sets in just 60 seconds once treated with UV light. The material also contains a degrading enzyme that can last from hours to months, depending on how it’s been modified, dissolving once the wound has had enough time to heal.
Many of the currently available adhesives can unseal easily, don’t adhere well in surgical sites with a lot of fluid, and are not flexible enough to handle expansion.
The Science Translational Medicine article can be viewed here.
